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Serious New Warning as Google AI Targets Billions of Private Messages
- kanbara 3y ago[flagged]
- add-sub-mul-div 3y agoApple launders its sale of your privacy and data through their deal with Google. Google launders its sale of your privacy and data through its ad tech ecosystem. It's all indirection and obfuscation. None of them are leaving money on the table.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoI’m out of the loop. What is Apple’s deal with Google and what data is given up in this deal?
- add-sub-mul-div 3y agoApple sells Google the spot as the default search engine in exchange for a $10+ billion/year revenue share on that loss of privacy.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Waterluvian 3y agoI think it’s interesting how anyone who cares about privacy can change that, but the main vocalists are those who are bothered on behalf of those who don’t care and don’t change it.
- throwuxiytayq 3y agoThat’s... a really weak point if we’re discussing actual platform capabilities and not some moral high ground. I didn’t even know what the default search engine is on iOS, and I don’t care very much. It’s literally one of the first things you change while setting up your (first) phone.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoOh I switched that to duck duck go immediately. It seems like “Google owns the entire OS and logs everything you do” versus “Google might get your search data” are really very different. Your comment to me seemed to imply that they were roughly similar. On the axis of which OS gives more data to Google it’s clear that android is far and away the worse choice here.
- lern_too_spel 3y ago> Oh I switched that to duck duck go immediately. Android lets you change more default apps than iOS. You can use a purely local maps app and have that be your default address handler. You can change your voice assistant to a local assistant. You don't have to send your location to Google if you want to get your GPS location (iOS sends your location to Apple). You can install an app on your own device without telling Google or Apple. Despite what Apple marketing has told you, Android is far and away the better choice for those who value privacy.
- Dig1t 3y agoThe deal is just to make Google the default search engine on iOS.
- BriggyDwiggs42 3y agoApple is evil, and google is more evil. They’re more similar than they are different, since they have the same motivations.
- e44858 3y agoThey're equally evil, but Apple has a better marketing team to make them look less evil.
- stavros 3y ago> tell me again how apple is evil and the DMA must punish them for charging money and keeping users private. Two companies can be evil. > this is why i would never switch to android-- the amount of sheer "oh my god what now" Android is an open source OS, you can use a variant without the AI stuff in it, unlike Apple where you don't have a choice. Are you afraid Google will kill Android? > and "they killed my favourite product" Are you worried Google might kill Android?
- jacooper 3y agoWell unlike iOS, on android you can just change the SMS app. Nobody is forcing you to use anything, that's the difference, and that's what the DMA is about.
- JohnFen 3y agoYeah, but that's pretty weak sauce. I can't control (or even know) whether or not people I may want to SMS with have this enabled. I assume most will due to the power of default settings. But either way, I have no control over it whatsoever.
- jacooper 3y agoTrue, same thing can be said about iMessage unencrypted cloud backups or WhatsApps unencrypted google backups, it's just that Android gives you the freedom to use an alternative.
- jacooper 3y agoUpdate: It seems this will run on device. https://twitter.com/thezedwards/status/1752091284662264285 https://twitter.com/thezedwards/status/1752091284662264285
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y agoThis just sounds dystopian. Because none of it is under the user's control. Not like anyone can choose the "non-Bard" update option. It does not exist. More unpleasant defaults.
- lencastre 3y agoMaybe Lineage?
- zecg 3y agoHow is it not under user's control? I use the free one from f-droid, https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.messages/ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.messages/
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y agoI use one from f-droid as well. But hundreds of millions of people are not going to even know that's possible. There will be no yes/no choice offered, e.g., yes to the security patches, no to the "AI". They will just get the "AI" nonsense in the update and it will probably be enabled by default. How many people know to use different contacts app from the default one, so that neither the system nor apps can access their contacts. How many know how to use an application firewall. It should not be necessary to have do all this fiddling around. The defaults are all wrong. That's intentional.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoThis is the standard Android SMS/MMS app that's even automatically updated in Android version 8 and 9? I keep my phone unconnected except for cell service, so only get automatic updates every half a year or more whenever I purposefully or accidentally enable the wifi for some purpose. This last happened a week or so ago accidentally and I worried then that my data would be sent to Google despite not having a Google account (the Play Services still automatically updated Messages anyway). I deleted the saved home WiFi connection to prevent access from happening accidentally again, but there will likely come a time when I need to manually connect anyway. Is there a way to shut off these annoying automatic updates and prevent this, or should I just figure out how to switch the messaging app to another SMS/MMS app and say goodbye to my messaging history?
- em-bee 3y agoget a phone with an alternative OS that doesn't send data to google.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y agoGrapheneOS has been great for me.
- reacharavindh 3y agoAs much as I wish for an open and non evil mobile device, GrapheneOS just gave me a chuckle - “GrapheneOS only officially supports Pixel devices” what a world we live in. To get away from Google, the only devices you do with are made by Google. I have given up. Regardless of how much tinkering you do at the OS level - hardened kernel, firewalls, VPNs, jailed apps whatever, the moment you want to make good use of your device doing common things we have come to expect - maps with turn-by-turn navigation that doesn’t suck, ability to write messages to other people where they are, without asking them to install some app first so that we can talk, we are bound to make a deal with the same devil we are fighting - Google, Facebook and other ad tracking machines. There is no point in keeping a hardened OS with Google Maps and WhatsApp installed. I made my deal with the devil that is Apple that atleast publicly pretends to care about privacy(of course, I have no way to verify that they do).
- squarefoot 3y agoZero privacy on mobile devices. News at 11. Mind you, this is not news and anyone should have seen this coming: user profiling, which requires spying, is a business, and Google is certainly not alone. In a capitalistic world as soon as one player explores successfully a new business, it is immediately followed by others, so don't expect Apple or anyone else to play nicely with users data. The only way to have privacy on devices is to use only fully open ones: hardware, firmware, drivers, OS, apps, protocols; all of them. As of today the number of such devices is sadly zero.
- em-bee 3y agoZero privacy on mobile devices. News at 11. The only way to have privacy on devices is to use only fully open ones: hardware, firmware, drivers, OS, apps, protocols; all of them. As of today the number of such devices is sadly zero. you can buy phones with an OS that is not under the control of google or apple. that is good enough for now. fully open hardware phones are coming too. and it's also the wrong reaction. because as much as you are right. the general population did not see this coming, and they need to be told to wake up. we need to make as much fuss about this as possible if we want to change it. dismissing that as not news is not helping
- squarefoot 3y ago> fully open hardware phones are coming too. Do you have any reference? Not that I don't trust you, I'm actually curious because that would be the #2 conquest of the century, right behind AI.
- em-bee 3y agowell, i am referring to the efforts of the fairphone and the pinephone as well as purism. they are not complete, but to the extend that these projects are successful (and they are doing much better than the openmoko before it), eventually a fully open hardware phone will emerge. basically my confidence is based on these trends. it is likely that an open hardware phone will always be a niche device, but for the past two decades attempts have been made to build such a phone, and i do not believe that these attempts will just stop. on the contrary, as hardware production gets cheaper and cheaper, as the performance of these phones improves and will eventually reach a peak like it has with laptop and desktop devices, it will be easier and easier to actually produce a fully open hardware based phone. at that point the only thing getting in the way would be lobbying and aggressive acquisition by competitors that do not want to see an open phone. a good example on the laptop side are framework laptops. similar attempts were made before but only now i find these models actually competitive in terms of features and price. (i am only waiting for them to offer a keyboard with a trackpoint like thinkpads, for them to be an alternative i can use) open hardware devices will probably always be behind the most cutting edge features by a few years, but these features matter less and less, and to the extent that a 5 year old device is still perfectly usable today, so will an open hardware device with specs that are a few years behind the latest and greatest
- telesilla 3y agoI look forward to seeing their EU opt-out solution..
- greatgib 3y agoGoogle pisses me off so much by constantly bloating more and more the "message" app. All I want is it just handling low tech SMS messages. Not uploading all kinds of data about me to do "smart" things, not sending all my message through their servers or operator data servers to show stupid bubbles like iMessage. And more than all, a lightweight application. Now the app is at least 150MB, before Ai, just to send SMS...
- beretguy 3y ago> Google pisses me off so much by constantly bloating more and more the "message" app. This is one of the main reasons I use iPhone.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- e44858 3y agoOn Android you can easily replace the stock SMS app with a simpler one if you like. Not possible on iOS.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- thiht 3y agoAre you sure? I used Signal on iOS at some point and I think it handled SMS just fine, maybe I remember it incorrectly?
- beretguy 3y agoFrom https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007321171-Can-I-send-SMS-MMS-with-Signal https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007321171-Ca... “iOS No. You can not send or receive insecure SMS/MMS with Signal on your iPhone […]”
- jgalt212 3y agoI'm interested in prompt injections that will export private conversations about upcoming M&A activity. That would make Google AI very useful.
- HackerThemAll 3y agoEnabling it is OPTIONAL. Such as enabling the former Google Assistant. If you want a wise assistant, you need to feed it with knowledge. Period. Directors in traditional companies have assistant persons who answer private phone calls, read private messages, and more. It's easy to make clicks on Google, no?
- yummypaint 3y agoOn my android home screen, the prime real estate formerly occupied by the weather app is now a permanent unremovable banner add saying "google assistant disabled, tap to continue." AFAIK there is no way to remove it without signing away more of my privacy. I can't substitute it for a normal widget that will tell me the local weather. Google clearly doesn't consider assistant use to be "optional"
- rpdillon 3y agoYep, similar to Play Protect. I disabled it, and now it nags me on every install from F-Droid to re-enable.
- HackerThemAll 3y agoI spent considerable time disabling all options related to Google Assistant and have no sign of it. Don't know what they do to you there in America.
- spondylosaurus 3y agoTry installing a new launcher/home screen app, like Nova, instead of using the default: https://novalauncher.com/ https://novalauncher.com/
- waynesonfire 3y agoEnabling it may be optional but the workflow will be filled with dark patterns to encourage it and dark patterns to make it difficult to opt-out. Also, is it only enabled if both or in case of group texts, all parties agree to it?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- waynesonfire 3y agoIt seems apparent that this is one of those things that everyone knows is wrong, but the companies have made a conscious decision that it's worth the cost of litigation that will come in a few years. That is how important it is to win the AI race for these companies. They are dead otherwise. The stakes are that high. Microsoft is doing[1] it and will continue to expand it. All your Windows interactions that can be mined will be sent to the the mothership. [1] https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collec...
- ecf 3y agoThis is why I never want iMessage interop with Android
- hilly2silly 3y agoThis author is literally asking Bard these questions and writing an article about its responses. Why are we treating this like its real journalism?
- JohnFen 3y agoDoes this apply to SMS as well? I already do my best to avoid sending emails to Google addresses and certainly would not use any Google messaging services, but if this covers SMS, then I'm a bit hosed here. Maybe I have to fall back to just using voice calls?
- shrimp_emoji 3y agoMaybe this will force me to downgrade to the Pinephone. When the Matrix becomes intolerable, the ride on the Nebuchadnezzar must begin.
- JohnFen 3y agoIt doesn't matter what phone you use if the person you send texts to has this enabled.